Book reviews by someone who loves books …

Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout (2008)

There are books you want to buy for other people, thrust into their hands and await the exclamations of joy. This is such a book. In a way, I feel I could happily say ‘forget the premise, forget all the reviews – just sit down and read it.’

Olive Kitteridge is the second Elizabeth Strout novel I have read,My Name is Lucy Barton was the first, and while I enjoyed that novel, this one makes me want to read everything she has written.

Although described as a novel the structure of this book is more of a series of linked stories – Olive Kitteridge is at the heart of them. Still, it manages to have the feel of a novel, there is a lovely sense of a community we become a part of, a sense of time passing, things changing, of a relationship that spans decades.

“He wanted to put his arms around her, but she had a darkness that seemed to stand beside her like an acquaintance that would not go away.”

A retired schoolteacher from a small coastal town of Crosby, Maine, Olive is a no-nonsense woman whose moods are unpredictable. Opinionated; a big woman Olive is a truly larger than life character. We first meet her before she retires, a middle-aged woman with a sulky teenage son, married to Henry, the popular town pharmacist. Henry is a kindly, gentle man, quiet where Olive is voluble, easy going and ever patient with his wife. Both he and Olive we learn early on have been tempted to stray – but they remain an ever-constant pair.

“You couldn’t make yourself stop feeling a certain way, no matter what the other person did. You had to just wait. Eventually the feeling went away because others came along. Or sometimes it didn’t go away but got squeezed into something tiny, and hung like a piece of tinsel in the back of your mind.”

We follow Olive from middle age to old age, we see her through the eyes of her husband, and the townspeople, some of whom Olive comes into but the briefest of contact – others who are more important. Olive has a knack of seeing right into the heart of the matter – so often in the right place at the right time, or the wrong time. Olive can be remarkably clear sighted about others at least, not always about her own life.

“Olive’s private view is that life depends on what she thinks of as “big bursts” and “little bursts.” Big bursts are things like marriage or children, intimacies that keep you afloat, but these big bursts hold dangerous, unseen currents. Which is why you need the little bursts as well: a friendly clerk at Bradlee’s, let’s say, or the waitress at Dunkin’ Donuts who knows how you like your coffee. Tricky business, really.”

There are so many stories to be told, stories of ordinary people, stories that are captivating because they are real. We meet Kevin, back after several years away, he is depressed, haunted by a tragedy in his past. As he sits brooding in his car, Olive – who once taught Kevin – climbs into the car beside him and strikes up a conversation. There is a similar shadow in Olive’s past – and she recognises his pain. Many of Olive’s former students remember being a little afraid of her, but there is a good deal of respect too. Angela O’Meara is a piano player in the Warehouse Bar and Grill – her best years behind her – she never achieved her dreams, and is now trapped in a pointless relationship with a married man. Olive and a neighbour try to help a girl with an eating disorder, Olive as ever tells it like it is, but we see in her, her own brand of sympathy and she genuinely wants to help. Other townspeople we meet are unhappy, conducting affairs, grieving, shielding secrets. The Larkins are a couple shunned by everyone, they stay hidden behind the closed shutters of their home, close to Olive’s house – something terrible happened a few years earlier which it appears no one can forget.

When they are in their late sixties Olive and Henry undergo a terrible, frightening experience when coming home from dinner with friends. We feel the couple ageing rapidly. The experience changes them both. There are tensions with Christopher their only son, mostly between Olive and Christopher. So often surly and uncommunicative as a teenager and young adult, the relationship with the middle-aged man he becomes is no easier. Christopher is in his thirties when he marries, his parents build a lovely house for him nearby, Olive is delighted with the house, with the idea of her son having a family just around the corner, although she doesn’t much like the wife. Christopher’s wife persuades him to California, and Olive is wounded, when Christopher’s first marriage fails and he stays away – she is deeply hurt. For a long time, Olive can’t bear to drive past the house that she feels Christopher should still be living in. As the years go on, the gulf between them widens, Olive isn’t invited to his second wedding, and has little to do with her grandson. A visit she pays her son, his second wife and her children, is fraught with difficulties, bewildering misunderstandings and Olive goes home early. There is a sense that Olive and Christopher see their shared past differently. Olive can be defensive, easy to take umbrage – she buries her hurts inside her, and turns a stubborn face to the world.

“There were days – she could remember this – when Henry would hold her hand as they walked home, middle-aged people, in their prime. Had they known at these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not. People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it. But she had that memory now, of something healthy and pure.”

Elizabeth Strout gives us an unforgettable portrait of a complex character, Olive is flawed and yet we can sympathise with her – she is wonderfully real, and we get to know her thoroughly. I loved everything about this novel, the sense of place, the characterisation, the wisdom, humour and pathos. All of life is in this novel, and the writing is quite simply superb. I shouldn’t generalise – but in my opinion there aren’t many modern writers who write this well.

I loved the TV mini-series of this with Frances McDormand in the lead role, but I’ve yet to read the book. It’s in my TBR – I’m just waiting for my memories of the series to fade somewhat so I can read the book without too many preconceptions. Strout seems to have a talent for crafting deeper narratives through these overlapping stories. As far as I’m aware, her latest book — Anything is Possible — has a similar structure.

This is my favourite Strout – Olive is such a complex character and so keenly observed. It took me a while to watch the TV adaptation, not wanting to ruin my memories of the book, but it’s beautifully done. Frances McDormand is a superb Olive.

I came to Elizabeth Strout the other way round but had similar feelings to you – while Lucy Barton was really good I thought Olive Kitteridge was brilliant. Not long after I read it I came across a podcast – Guardian Book Podcast I think – of Elizabeth Strout talking about Olive as a character and the book – and it just made her even more fascinating. Am now half way through current stories ‘Anything Is Possible’ and can recommend it too!

I read this one a wee while ago when lots of people seemed to be raving about it but I was disappointed with it. I really disliked Olive and the book felt like a group of disjointed short stories that had just been stuck together with the name Olive Kitteridge added in now and again.
It’s just as well we are all different I suppose!

I absolutely loved this book, and am glad to hear you did too! It made me want to add every interconnected story collection to my tbr. It would be hard to measure up to Olive, but some will be worth a try!

This is one of my favorite books also. Her newest book, Anything is Possible, feels similar to this in that it is a compilation short stories about people from the same town as Lucy Barton. You will love it!

Sounds fascinating! I loved My Name Is Lucy Barton and recently read (and was indifferent to) her new book, Anything Is Possible, but I should go back to her earlier work. (This one won the Pulitzer, I think.) Plus I have a soft spot for teacher fiction, even if the book isn’t exactly about that subject.

I loved loved loved Olive Kitteridge and am glad to read your review. The author’s genius is I had sympathy for Olive in spite of her flaws and prickliness. I haven’t read any of her other books but should put Lucy Barton and the Burgess Boys on my list.

Her debut was on my list of real favourites for years and years, but I’ve lost track of her since. Definitely must read this one before delving into the TV series though! Thanks for the additional encouragement!

[…] reading My Name is Lucy Barton, I had been meaning to read more by Elizabeth Strout. I enjoyed Olive Kitteridge even more, the structure is more of linked short stories and the writing is utterly […]